2022 Chablis Valmur Grand Cru

Isabelle Raveneau greeted me at the hottest address in Chablis. Literally. Uncharacteristically, for 2024, the sun was beating down when I rang the doorbell. As usual, this was a comprehensive tasting of two vintages, the 2022s bottled in April and the 2023s in barrel.

“Twenty-two is a very concentrated vintage. It is a ‘new classic’ in a way. Previously, it would have been a vintage like 2007 or 2014, more saline, but new classics are more like 2022. The 2023 vintage is less concentrated as the yield is almost twice the previous year. In 2022, the berries had less juice, whereas in 2023, we had good flowering and more rain, so berries were more gorged. They also have thinner skins. We had cooler weather in August, so the berries took a while to complete véraison. The end of August was sunny and almost too warm in some places, but as we had so much rain before, it didn't matter. We started the picking around 12 or 13 September after the heat wave. We sorted a lot as some berries were acetic. The amount of juice was almost double, so we had yields between 65 and 70hl/ha. Their thinner skins meant that they were easier to extract.”

Raveneau’s 2022s are broadly unaltered from last year’s banded scores, the Les Clos and Blanchots tussling for supremacy. Their Premier Crus are extremely consistent, though perhaps Les Butteaux represents the best value. Still, the price hikes I see in many restaurants will erase that difference. Honestly, it’s probably cheaper to travel to Chablis and order a bottle at a restaurant! Like other comparisons of the two vintages, the 2023s don’t quite reach the same pinnacles, but, hey, this is Raveneau, so the Valmur is exceptional, and Montée de Tonnerre is very enticing.

Isabelle Raveneau was on hand to guide me through the Domaine's 2022s in barrel and a selection of 2021s in bottle. As usual, she had prepared a ‘table for one’ so that I could sit and type comfortably. “For us, 2022 was nothing special - everything went smoothly,” she tells me, which must have come as a relief after the tumult throughout the previous season. “The only thing was the lack of rain during the summer. We were expecting to pick very early, but the lack of water stopped grape maturity. We started picking quite early on September 1. The yields are normal, but I found the concentration of sugar and acidity interesting, similar to 2020, when we began on August 28. The berries were really healthy [in 2022], but there was not a lot of juice in the press. We decided to keep the same pressing levels as we didn’t want to extract too much bitterness. We just wanted nice juice. I didn’t buy more barrels than usual and reused some that were empty for six months and kept in a humid environment, fermenting inside them so that they weren’t empty for too long. The wines that fermented in tank were left to age there, so I used the same amount of barrels. The alcohol levels are between 12.5% and 13.0%.” With that, she laments that she has to forego a summer vacation as she is rebuilding her house. She admits delight in demolishing walls, perhaps getting rid of any frustration at seeing the eyewatering sums that her wines sell for on the secondary market. Take a cursory glance at restaurant lists in Chablis to see how reasonable ex-cellar tariffs are. One thing she cannot be frustrated about is the caliber of their 2022s. These are two strong vintages for Raveneau, perhaps the Les Vaillons and Montée de Tonnerre transcending their terroirs. Their 2022s have real depth and texture; they’re not steely or linear, which has never been their style. But they are imbued with genuine complexity with subtle traces of exotic fruit that do not detract from their typicité and have the propensity to mature magnificently in bottle. I am inclined to suggest that their 2021s might mature better than their 2022s…we will see.